In Britain’s Playgrounds, ‘Bringing in Risk’ to Build Resilience

[davnicwil]

> in Shoeburyness in Southeast Britain

Completely off topic, but this made me chuckle, and I thought it might be interesting to point out.

This sounds completely weird to a British ear. For some reason, don't ask me why, we don't ever refer to North/South/East/West in the context of 'Britain' but only in the context of the countries within it. Southeast England is the 'correct' phrasing.

Just an interesting and funny example of completey unintuitive local language quirks being exposed by an outside perspective. Of course it's totally logical to say 'Southeast Britain', and seeing that it looks weird made me, for the first time, notice it and question why we don't.

[tzs]

I saw a made-for-TV movie about the Steven Stayner kidnapping [1]. Stayner was kidnapped when he was 7 while walking home from school in Merced, California.

No one knew if he had been kidnapped, murdered, had an accident, or ran away.

There's a creek named Bear Creek that runs through Merced. At one point in the movie someone in law enforcement suggests that they dredge "the Bear Creek" to search for Stayner's body.

That probably sounded fine to most people watching, but it seemed very wrong to me. I lived in Merced or the surrounding countryside from 7 until I went to college, with several years living a block from Bear Creek, and I never heard anyone call it "the Bear Creek". It was always just "Bear Creek" or "The creek".

I once made a list (since lost) of assorted creeks, rivers, lakes, and other prominent geological features around the US and what the locals called them. Some almost always used "the" and some almost always did not. I could not discern any pattern to which did and which did not.

I wonder if a given locality is consistent on this? E.g., if they omit "the" from their local river, will they also omit it from their local lake?

I wonder if intelligence agencies, when sending people trying to pass as natives to someplace to spy, train them on this level of local lingo minutia?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner

[dictum]

To a non-British ear, Shoeburyness is what sounds weird ;)

[beschizza]

Another favorite American-perspective truth about Britain I enjoy is when towns in Essex are described as London suburbs. It's inconceivable to me (I lived in Chelmsford for a few years as a teenager) but quite true.

[cup-of-tea]

You don't have to put so much effort into not offending anyone. It's fine to say "that's not British English, by the way". Half of your post is dedicated to not offending delicate Americans by reassuring them that they're not wrong. I'm sure they know.

[RobLach]

It's odd that older generations feel the need to build in risk into playgrounds when any kid will be just fine pushing risk. It's moreso overbearing parents halting their fun.

I remember sitting in park watching kids daring each other to climb on top of the plastic safety spiral slide and try jumping down the ground from 15 feet up. Eventually a gaggle of adults kept lining up to talk them down to be more safe.

Not to mention kids these days are under a massive amount of social stigmatization through social media that permeates their daily lives. At least back in the day when you got beat up at school you could go home and feel safe for a bit. Nowadays your bullies come home alongside your Facebook account.

I tend to believe that the resilience built into the current teenage generation is unprecedented. When I see others complaining about a lack of grit in kids I see a generation that has developed a strong set of coping mechanisms for a reality older generations are simply blind to.

[DanBC]

Children push risk, and so you need safer forms of risk built in to allow children to feel the risk, rather than trying to eliminate all risk at which point children do fucking stupid things like

> climb on top of the plastic safety spiral slide and try jumping down the ground from 15 feet up

[Gustomaximus]

Its really interesting POV. I do wonder if this is conflating different development areas.

The social side is much more direct route to emotions, belonging and self worth. While playground adventure is more about challenging your brain to allow you to do what feels dangerous but you can overcome.

I did tread twice in what you said "I see a generation that has developed a strong set of coping mechanisms for a reality older generations are simply blind to". Very pertinent.

[truculation]

>One such audit found that a popular climbing structure, open since the early 1980s, presented “a medium to high risk potential for severe to fatal injuries”

Ah, they must mean the tree. Popular since 198000000 BCE.

[ume]

Tokyo (not sure about the rest of Japan) has similar with a number of 'play parks' within larger parks. Rope swings, makeshift slides, saws, hammers and nails abound. The kids come back smelling of smoke from the communal bonfire though...

See http://playpark.jp (Japanese only)

[m_mueller]

also their normal playgrounds are nice. Tarzan swings, metal bar jungle jims, wood and metal slide houses and fenced in sandboxes are standard, plus they pretty much all have public toilets and water fountains. In general I find infrastructure for families great here, even in such a crowded place.

[dasil003]

Reminds me of the Berkeley Adventure Playground.

[hyper_reality]

> (In the United States, a country with far higher litigation costs, government agencies overseeing play safety are not known to have made any such changes.)

That's the first time in a while that the New York Times has really made me laugh. The article pictures British schools as a model of educational enlightenment, and takes a swipe against an obsessively litigious culture that's seeping into the lives of infants. It shows how implementing commonsensical educational policies is a bipartisan issue, and that the wider litigious culture is the roadblock to helping kids develop well-tuned resilient and risk-taking behaviours.

[ukulele]

Agreed on not holding British schools up too high, but as an American, I have to agree with the author's swipe that any US facility that intentionally provided bricks on a playground would be in for a world of hurt financially. It would not end well.

[linkregister]

I showed this article to my Commonwealth wife and she chuckled. Most Brits recall school as a place where physical and verbal bullying is commonplace, much more prevalent than is perceived in other countries. Maybe the playgrounds are sanitized, but the risk of physical injury at the hands of ones' school mates is ever-present.

[Angostura]

UK schools have done a lot to combat bullying in recent years. My kids’ experience of school is quite different to mine.

[Symbiote]

The code is saying the British playgrounds are not sanitized, and they are not school playground either.

[Glawen]

The next step would be to remove all those Safety signs (e.g. mind the step, look left, drowning risk in front of the sea... ) in the streets and see how many people die due to their absence.

[achamayou]

Those signs are not primarily there to prevent death, they exist to prevent lawsuits, or at least mitigate their impact.

[stctgion]

Shoeburyness, home of the MoD testing range. I moved to the Kent coast as a child. I was surprised while playing on the school playground that none of my friends even noticed the deep booming sound every few minutes. The range must be 50 miles away across the estuary but it's still loud enough to rattle windows.

[cup-of-tea]

It's also quite close to the Richard Montgomery Exclusion Zone.

[mirimir]

At eight, I was playing with WWII ammunition. I mean, it was everywhere. But damn, that was stupid.

[John_KZ]

It sounds like a specific playground for parents that want to feel special. It's a ridiculous idea, and dangerous for the kids.